Harrowing Hats (23 page)

“Is Eloise here?” Chase asked her with a smile.

Belle nodded. “I’ll get her.”

Since the room behind her was empty, I whispered, “Has Eloise gone out anywhere in the last hour or so?” I knew the chocolate and sugar would’ve disappeared completely in the damp weather if it had been longer.

Belle’s cheeks turned pink, which I took to mean that Eloise had been out. But she replied, “No. Not that I’m aware of. Is there a problem?”

“We’re not sure.” Chase gave me his annoyed look. “Could we just speak to Eloise?”

Angela and Eloise came out of their bedrooms to join us in the cramped living room. Their apartment was bigger than the one Chase and I shared, but not by much. There couldn’t be many secrets between them—no privacy either.

While Chase questioned Eloise about her whereabouts, I looked at her shoes. Why waste your time talking when you could go right to the source?

She was wearing sandals—the kind that cross over the top of your foot and tie. Very nice. But her feet were bigger than the tracks we’d followed.

“Did you know Bernardo broke through the police tape to look for something in the chocolate shop?” Chase asked point-blank.

“Does it matter?” she demanded. “It’s his shop.”

Good point. Score one for Eloise. Angela had on slippers. Belle was barefoot. Both of them could be contenders for the shoe size, but I couldn’t see why either of them would be involved. If Cesar had been dating all three sisters, I think we would’ve heard about it.

Chase explained that the police investigation of Cesar’s death wasn’t over. Eloise shrugged her expressive, bare shoulders, not getting why we were there. “Bernie has a right to look through the shop,” she defended her new lover. “Maybe he needed some chocolate. Or maybe he needed money from the cash register.”

“He told me he was looking for his brother’s chocolate recipe,” I added, knowing it would make her angry to learn that Bernardo and I had been talking.

“There you go.” She smiled in an awful way. “Why are you bothering me with this? I don’t have a chocolate recipe.”

“Maybe not. But these weren’t Bernardo’s footprints that we followed from the shop,” Chase continued. “We thought they might be yours.”

She laughed. “You must be kidding! Like I’d be out there looking for something Bernie could find on his own. Besides.” She shivered. “
Eww!
Cesar died in there!”

Her reaction was genuine enough. I knew Chase was convinced, too, because he got up to leave.

“Look, if any of you played any part in this—the murder or the break-in—now is the time to come forward. Don’t wait to get caught.” He took his time staring down into each woman’s face. None of them so much as blinked. If they were guilty of anything, we weren’t going to find out that night.

Belle looked like she had something to say. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth as she put her hand out to Chase.

Angela pulled her back.

It made me feel like the youngest tart might know something about Eloise, but she was afraid to speak up. The sisters were loyal to each other—I had to give them that.

“Well, that got us nowhere,” Chase said as we went back down the stairs to the cobblestones. It had started raining again, a light sprinkle that was clearing away the terrible heat.

“Maybe not but—”

The yard outside the King’s Tarts was filled with dark riders. The Templar Knights were waiting on their wonderful black horses, each carrying a burning torch.

Chase stopped and looked up at them. “Is there a problem?”

“Not any longer.” The knight in front, who seemed to be in charge, wasn’t the same smoky-voiced leader who was usually with them. I wondered where the big knight had gone.

“What does that mean?” Chase asked.

“You have been alerted, Bailiff. Our job is done.” As though there were an invisible signal between them, they all rode away together, their horses’ hooves striking on the rainy night air.

“Those guys are just plain weird.” I had to voice my opinion. “I think the other residents might be right. They need to get out of the Village. I know they’re popular—”

“I’m not Adventure Land,” Chase growled. “Talk to Merlin about it. Let’s go home.”

Talking to the wizard that night might’ve been easier than trying to talk to Chase as we ate frozen dinners. He didn’t have anything to say, and even my best attempts to draw him into a conversation were met with stony glares.

I know it was cowardly of me, but I didn’t bring up either of the burning questions in my mind—why did he keep disappearing and what was Adventure Land forcing him to do?

I know I should’ve been more demanding. I shouldn’t have lain there and let him fall asleep in my arms, but I’m not made of stone. Whatever was bothering him would come out. I could wait. I knew I’d wait forever for him if I had to.

Just before dawn, Chase eased his large frame out of bed very carefully, trying not to wake me. But I was determined that he wasn’t going out again without me. I waited until he was dressed and gone, then I followed him.

There were two security guards outside the Dungeon along with my brother, Tony, and one other man I recognized from Robin’s pack in Sherwood Forest. The five of them stood outside talking quietly as the gray morning light crept up on the Village.

“Hey, Jessie,” Tony said even though I was still inside the open doorway, trying to be inconspicuous.

I’d forgotten how good he was at knowing I was there without seeing me. Chalk it up to twin magic. I had a similar talent—I was always able to tell when he needed money.

“How long have you been there?” Chase asked me.

“Not as long as you. What’s up?”

One of the security men laughed. “I’d say about twenty of the Merry Men.”

H
e wasn’t kidding. The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest—including Robin Hood—were scattered through the forest, hanging from trees like trussed-up turkeys. They were carefully bound and gagged, gazing at us in anger and frustration when we saw them.

The security men laughed until Chase finally said, “Okay. I think we’ve all had our fun with this. Each of you take a tree. Make sure there aren’t any visitors tied up. If there are, bring them to me. Don’t just let them leave. I don’t want to see anyone’s personal experience hanging from a tree in Renaissance Village on the Internet.”

I had a little pocketknife with me that I’d recently started carrying in the pouch on my side. It had already come in handy a few times. I went to help Robin first, recalling his words from last night. I don’t think this was what he had in mind.

As soon as I cut his gag, a steady stream of oaths followed, all aimed at the Templars. “We didn’t do anything,” Robin swore to Chase while I cut him down. “Those guys need to be reined in.”

I knew he was lying—I knew something was up last night. It just didn’t work out the way he’d planned. When I saw the look on Tony’s face—let’s call it his lie-to-Jessie face—I knew I was right.

Chase knew, too. “Don’t bother denying that you planned to teach the knights a lesson. I live here, too. If you want to keep something secret, you shouldn’t tell everyone in the Village about it beforehand.”

Robin glared at me.

“I didn’t say anything,” I defended. “But I suppose you told other people, too.”

He started to deny it but tried another tack. “We have our pride! We were here first.”

“This isn’t just your forest anymore,” Chase told him. “We’ve talked about this before. Stealing from or otherwise tampering with the Templars isn’t a good idea. Play your games with someone else.”

“Never mind that,” Alex, Robin’s second in command, yelled as he was released. “Why do you always take their part, Chase? These guys are marauders. They need to be stopped. Since when can’t groups have fun together?”

“Your idea of fun is different than theirs,” Chase said. “What was your plan, Alex? You thought you could sneak into their encampment and take it from there?”

“These were our trees first.” Robin pushed on the tree that had recently been his home. “The Templars have been taking over everything. Ask any resident—”

“Except the women,” Tony added. “Don’t ask the women.”

But Chase was done hearing their excuses. “I’m not your father,” he told them. “I don’t favor either of you. I’m here to keep the peace. That’s all.”

“At
our
expense!” Alex shouted.

“Get some sleep, all of you,” Chase advised. “Leave the Templars alone.”

“Are you sure this is what Adventure Land wants?” I asked as Chase and I left the forest. The security men were still cutting Robin’s guys down from the trees.

“I don’t know right now, Jessie.”

“How about some coffee? We can talk over breakfast.”

“I have a hundred things to do before breakfast,” he said with an edge to his voice. “I’ll pass for now. See you later.”

I’d never seen Chase so stressed. Not even when the elephants and camels had gotten loose at the same time. Not even when his lance broke during the joust and the Black Knight kept coming after him. I knew it was time for me to get involved.

I got two coffees and two extra-large cinnamon rolls from the Monastery Bakery. It was still early, no visitors yet. The Village was waking up around me with chickens clucking and roosters crowing. The maintenance guys were cleaning out the privies, and the street sweepers were washing down the cobblestones. I watched as the new Green Man practiced his routine on stilts and the men who owned the Three Pigs Barbecue unloaded what looked like hundreds of pounds of coleslaw. Did people really eat that much coleslaw in a day?

The pirates were up early (probably still doing ship repairs), barking out commands that drifted out over the lake in pirate-speak.

I waved to Ginny Stewart, a tough, white-haired woman who owned the Lady of the Lake Tavern. She was sweeping out the courtyard beneath the Hanging Tree. She kind of waved her broom at me and kept going.

I finally reached Merlin’s Apothecary on the far side of the castle. He didn’t know it yet, but he and I were going to have a little talk about what was really going on out here with the Templars—and with Chase.

Merlin was dusting his motley, stuffed moose head, affectionately known as Horace, when I entered his shop. Everything in the apothecary needed a good cleaning. There were years of dust and cobwebs on the colored bottles and the jars that held Merlin’s magic potions.

Apparently the place looked exactly like visitors thought it should, though, because they spent hours there and loved to have their pictures taken with the moose and the wizard.

“Ah! Lady Jessie! It’s very good to see you this morning!” Merlin greeted me from the ladder. “I see you have two cups of coffee. To my knowledge—which is as vast as the ocean—the bailiff is not about this place. That can only mean you’ve brought me breakfast.”

“That’s right. I have a fresh cinnamon roll for you, too. Would you like to eat in the courtyard? The minstrels are rehearsing next door. It should be a wonderful place to talk.”

“I see. This gift of breakfast comes with a price.”

“Nothing is free, wizard. You of all people should know this.”

He didn’t move from the ladder, instead looking like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to come down at all. “Mayhap I will forego breakfast, my lady. A thousand pardons. The shop needs cleaning, as you can see. Perhaps another time.”

“Perhaps not.” I wasn’t taking no for an answer. Maybe I couldn’t bully Chase, but I could handle Merlin. “Get down here and eat this food or I’m telling everyone who you really are.”

He tipped his pointy, purple hat with gold stars to one side of his graying head. “I don’t believe this would make any difference to the everyday workings of the Village. Tell away.”

“If everyone knew you ran Adventure Land, there would be a line waiting all the way to the Village Square with residents who have complaints. Perhaps you have never seen how angry they are every Thursday morning as they wait to complain to the bailiff.”

“The next time I see Sir Bailiff,” Merlin whined, “I shall complain as well. He was not supposed to share his information about me with everyone.”

“Lucky for you, he didn’t. I’m the only one who knows.”

He mumbled and complained all the way down the ladder, but the important part was that he ended up sitting with me at one of the tables in the courtyard. The morning was pleasantly cool after the rain the night before. The music from the practicing minstrels was sweet. The coffee was still hot—and I was determined to get my answers.

“What do you want, Lady Jessie?” he asked when we were seated and enjoying our cinnamon rolls.

“I want to know why you aren’t doing anything about the Templars terrorizing the Village. That’s for starters.”

“What would you have me do? The visitors like the Templars. We’ve seen a three and a half percent growth in ticket sales since they set up camp. You can’t argue with the numbers. They make shareholders happy. In turn, that makes me happy.”